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Cymothoa Exigua

Cymothoa Exigua as known as the Tongue-Eating louse, this tongue-eating louse is a Parasitic Isopod of the Cymothoidae family. How this parasite enters the fish? For your information, the tongue-eating louse will enter the fish through the gills and they will attach to the fish’s tongue. There also different places attached to the fish between the male and female louse, male louse will attach on the beneath of the gill arches, meanwhile, the female will attach to the tongue of the fish. Female length measurement is longer than the male louse, females can grow as long as 8-29mm, meanwhile, the males only can grow only 3-7mm. What the parasite do is, they will cut the fish tongue then they will replace the place of the fish tongue and become the fish’s new tongue.

The area at the tongue of the fish will lack blood, this is because the louse extracts the using their claws. As I said that, the parasite will become a new tongue for the fish, the fish also can use the parasite as their tongue normally same as their old tongue. Actually, the parasite will not cause other damage besides cut the tongue. But the fish usually lose their weight if there are 2 or more Cymothoa Exigua in their body (as reported by Lanzing and O’Connor). The parasite will make the fish blood and mucus as their food. But, they will detach the fish tongue after the fish was dead and it needs a little time to detach themselves from the dead fish tongue. After it detaches from the tongue it will go out and **clung ** to the head of the fish or any part of the fish body.

For your information, the Cymothoid Isopod is only the species of Cymothoa that consume and replace the host’s organs. We can found this species from the south Gulf of California to the Gulf of Guayaquil in Ecuador, and also at the Atlantic. Actually, the lifecycles of the Cymothoa Exigua is not much known yet. They will undergo sexual reproduction, first of all, the young louse will attach on a fish gills and it will become males, meanwhile when they grow and mature they will be a female louse. If there is a pair of the louse, one of them can turn into female louse once it grows up to 10mm length. To prevent the male Cymothoids becoming female, there will be a vaccine that called Pheromones that will be secreted by the female Cymothoids. Slow growth rate, tissue damage, and anemia will face by the host and this can lead to death. So, I think I will end my post here, thanks for reading keep following My Biologist’s Adventure.

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Source:

1. What is Cymothoa Exigua ?
2. Where is Gulf of California ?
3. What is Pheromones ?

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